Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Baroness Heyhoe Flint

Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Baroness Heyhoe Flint, OBE, DL (born 11 June 1939) is an English former female cricketer. She was a member of the English women's cricket team from 1960 to 1982. She was captain of England from 1966 to 1978, and was unbeaten in six Test series. She was captain when England won the inaugural Women's Cricket World Cup, held in England in 1973.^[1]

Cricket career

Heyhoe Flint was chiefly a batswoman. She played in 22 Women's Test cricket matches, with a batting average of 45.54 in 38 innings. She scored three Test centuries, including her highest score of 179, a world record when she scored it against Australia at the Oval in 1976, earning a draw to save the series by batting for more than 8½ hours. She was captain of the first England women's team to play at Lord's in the 1976 Women's Ashes series. She also hit the first six in a women's Test match in 1963, also at the Oval against Australia.^[2] After being replaced as England captain in 1978, she played her last Test match in the 1979 series against West Indies, but went on to play in the 1982 Women's Cricket World Cup.^[3]

Post-cricket career

Since retiring from cricket, Heyhoe Flint has been a cricket journalist and broadcaster, and after-dinner speaker. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1972,^[4] and was one of the first ten women admitted to the MCC in 1999, as an honorary life member. In 2004, she was the first woman elected to the full committee of the MCC. Outside cricket, she played as goalkeeper for the England national field hockey team in 1964. She has been a director of Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. since 1997. She has been president of the Lady Taverners since 2001. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours.^[5][6]

With Netta Rheinberg, she co-authored a history of women's cricket: Fair Play: The Story of Women's Cricket, Angus & Robertson, 1976, ISBN 978-0-207-95698-0.

In October 2010 she was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame, the first woman to achieve this accolade.^[7]

On 19 November 2010 it was announced that she was to be ennobled to sit in the House of Lords as a Conservative Party peer.^[8] "I was completely taken by surprise when I took the call from the Prime Minister in September," Heyhoe Flint said. "Obviously I am really thrilled at my appointment but still very humbled at the thought of joining such an historic institution...My background in sport, journalism, charity and community work will I hope stand me in good stead, and I hope I can make a positive contribution as a working peer. I will certainly look forward to the commute from one Lord's to another Lords."^[9] She was created a life peer on 21 January 2011 taking the title Baroness Heyhoe Flint, of Wolverhampton in the County of West Midlands.^[10]

Personal life

Heyhoe Flint was educated at Wolverhampton Girls' High School. She is the wife of Derrick Flint (born 14 June 1924), who had a first-class cricket career comprising 10 matches for Warwickshire in 1948-49 playing as a leg-spin and googly bowler. Heyhoe Flint has a son named Ben G Heyhoe Flint who also played cricket, regularly for the Sir JP Getty's XI. She is also step-mother to Derrick Flint's daughter, Rowan Flint (1962). ^[11]

See also

• List of residents of Wolverhampton

References

External links

• Player profile from Cricinfo
• Biography from 2002 on her honorary doctorate from University of Bradford
• MCC delivers first 10 maidens (BBC News, 16 March 1999)

England squad – 1973 Women's Cricket World Cup (1st title)
1 Bakewell 2 Clifford 3 Cruwys 4 Dewdney 5 Gough 6 Green 7 Heyhoe Flint (c) 8 Hilliam 9 Hodges 10 Mather 11 Pilling 12 Stephenson 13 Thomas 14 Watmough

England squad – 1982 Women's Cricket World Cup
1 Bakewell 2 Brittin 3 Court 4 Goatman (c) 5 Heyhoe Flint 6 C. Hodges 7 S. Hodges 8 Hullah 9 Lear 10 Southgate 11 Starling 12 Stother 13 Tedstone 14 Watmough